Bodhana Sivanandan (ENG: 2303) – MarcAndria Maurizzi (FRA: 2628)
DOLE Open Aix-en-Provence 2026 R1 18-07-2026

Black’s last move, 27… Qb6 was an oversight in a marginally better position, and Bodhana was quick to take advantage.

Her winning continuation was 28. b4! Qxb4 29. Nd5!

Congratulations to everyone who found the solution. You have to see three move tactics like this all the time, but very occasionally even 2600+ rated GMs sometimes miss them.

Here’s the complete game. As always, click on any move for a pop-up window.

Bodhana Sivanandan (ENG: 2303) – MarcAndria Maurizzi (FRA: 2628)
DOLE Open Aix-en-Provence 2026 R1 18-07-2026

How did Bodhana (White, to play) beat a top French GM from this position on Saturday?

#40 Banaszek, Marcin
1^st HM Gazeta Częstochowska 1966

I offered you a mate in 40 for our 400th puzzle.

Congratulations to David for finding the first three moves, and especially to Maks for working out the complete solution, which you can play through here. Click on any move for a pop-up window.

For our 400th puzzle I thought I should post a Mate in 400, but I wasn’t able to find anything suitable, so decided to divide by 10 and offer a mate in 40 from 60 years ago instead.

You’re going to have to play a lot of checks on the long diagonal, so the first few moves shouldn’t be too hard to find.

After that it’s all about going upstairs and downstairs to clear the a-file and then deliver checkmate. The quickest way to do this takes exactly 40 moves.

Here’s the solution to Monday’s problem, copied from YACPDB (Yet Another Chess Problem DataBase).

If you’re interested you’ll find more Nabokov problems here.

Our much delayed final match of the season, a rearranged London League match against Hammersmith, took place on Tuesday 7 July.

With little at stake for either side, the Hammers weren’t at full strength, resulting in a match between two evenly matched teams.

You’ll see that we went down to a narrow defeat, but there were excellent wins from Iain and Chris.

Thanks to all who played for our London League team throughout what has been a sad and difficult season following Gavin’s sudden death last summer. Thanks, especially, to Sampson for captaining the team along with all the other work he’s done for both the club and the Thames Valley League this year.

If you know anyone of 2000+ strength who’d like to play for our first teams in any or all of the London, Thames Valley and Surrey Leagues, do get in touch.

We look forward to seeing you all again over the board next season.

Vladimir Nabokov was one of the most influential novelists of the 20th century as well as being a talented chess problemists.

I found this example in an article by NM Ilan Vardi in the July 2026 issue of CHESS.

It’s White to play and force mate in three moves, against any Black defence.

Just the thing for a hot summer day!

Monday’s puzzle was taken from the game Vaccani – Cohn (3rd IBCA Blind World Championship 1975).

From this position the game continued 42. h4 h6 43. g5 h5 44. Ke5 Ke7 and a draw was agreed a few moves later.

As some of you spotted, both players erred here. White’s 43rd move, g5, was a WMOTB (Worst Move On The Board) – the other two legal moves led to draws but this should have lost.

Black should have replied 43… gxh5, when after 44. hxg5, Ke8 wins (but Kg8 only draws), and after 44. Kxg5, Black can win with any of Ke7, Kg7 or Ke8 (but not Kg8).

As always, go away and play through these variations yourself. Don’t just believe me (or my computer): convince yourself through active learning.

This is just the sort of position you might get when playing on increments. Learning to play endings like this accurately will gain you a lot of extra half (or even full) points.

My latest Minor Piece tells the inspirational story of Hans Cohn, a blind Jewish boy from Berlin who fled the Nazis to study at Worcester College for the Blind. He played chess at a high level for decades, representing Willesden in the London League. I was privileged to play him in a Richmond 2 v Willesden match in 1976.

Here’s a pawn ending from one of his games: Vaccani – Cohn (3rd IBCA Blind World Championship 1975).

From this position the game continued 42. h4 h6 43. g5 h5 44. Ke5 Ke7 and a draw was agreed a few moves later.

Your thoughts, please.

Monday’s puzzle was an endgame study composed by two of the greatest Soviet masters of this art, Leopold Mitrofanov and David Gurgenidze (Shakhmaty v SSSR 1987), which I discovered in the June 2026 issue of the British Chess Magazine.

The solution is 1. a6! Ra1 2. Bg1+! Rxg1 3. Kh8! Rd1 4. a7 Rh1+ 5. Kg8 Rg1+ 6. Kf8 Rf1+ 7. Ke8 and White will emerge with queen against rook: not so easy to win over the board, but sufficient for a win in a study.

Congratulations to David, the first to find the first two moves, and to Mike L, who found White’s third move. You might want to work out for yourself why the unlikely Kh8 is the only winning option here.

You can play through the solution here: click on any move for a pop-up window.